Dynasty Strategy – Keep your old QBs

Posted On February 8, 2017

It’s easy to understand selling your old QBs for cheap. Age is not a friend in dynasty fantasy football. I can’t tell you that I have a ton of statistics on this but it seems pretty clear that these days QBs can maintain a career deep into their 30’s and even into their 40’s and stay fantasy football relevant. It wasn’t always this way, that’s because quarterbacks used to be treated like this…

But now they are protected by rules that favor the passing game and scoring. QBs cannot be hit int he head and they cannot be hit below the knees as long as they are in the pocket. They are not allowed to be hit while sliding out of the pocket. Mind you, these are good for the game and good for player safety so I am not complaining, I am suggesting you not get rid of your QBs just because they are old. Tom Brady is 39 years old. He professes to want to play another four or five years. I would take him at his word folks. While I believe his days of being the top fantasy QB are over, he is a solid starting quality QB. Drew Brees is 38, Carson Palmer is 37, Philip Rivers is 35, Big Ben is 34 and Aaron Rodgers is 33. If Brady and Brees play until they are 42 and the others play until 38, that would be a combined 20 years of dynasty fantasy football production. Will that happen in each of these players cases? Probably not, but it’s not outlandish to believe that most of them will last that long.

And I’m not saying any of these trades on their face are wrong…or even bad. My point is that QBs that have a HISTORY of performing at a high level for fantasy purposes should be kept at all but the highest cost. Potential is important but if you’re QB is in their mid-30’s there is no reason to trade them. They are more valuable to you on your roster unless you have other productive assets already in your possession at the QB position. While the running back is the engine of your dynasty team, the quarterback is the transmission. A dynasty team won’t perform optimally if it doesn’t have a QB that can kick it into high gear most weeks and get you two TDs. Young QBs still developing in their 20’s often are not consistent enough to do that for you. Experienced QBs in their mid-30’s are, so why would you get rid of them?